Little sister readies for war: 'Pure soldier' leaves for Iraq mission

Spc. Sarah O’Hearn of Marshfield is going to Iraq with the 772nd Military Police Company attached to Delta Company, 1st Battalion of the 181st Infantry Regiment of the Massachusetts National Guard.

By Don Conkey

When Sarah O’Hearn arrives in Iraq, her thoughts will likely drift home to Marshfield, to a horseback ride on Rexhame Beach.

Back home, when Melissa O’Hearn’s thoughts drift toward Iraq, about Sarah being in harm’s way, she will likely think about the same horseback ride.

They were two sisters, sharing much more than an evening ride on a beach.

They were saying goodbye last week, at least for a while, in a private, memorable way that was special to both of them.

“It was perfect,” Sarah said of the ride, which she and Melissa took on her last night home on leave. “The weather was perfect, the water was just the right height. We rode the beach part, then rode up the dunes. It was a lot of bonding. Relaxing, riding next to each other, just talking.”

Spc. Sarah O’Hearn, a 2003 graduate of Marshfield High School, is with the 772nd Military Police Company, attached to Delta Company, 1st Battalion of the 181st Infantry Regiment of the Massachusetts National Guard.

Her unit, which has been undergoing desert training in Mississippi, departs shortly for Iraq, perhaps as soon as next week.

Sarah, who is 22, will be in Iraq for at least a year, perhaps longer. She is among 15 women in her unit. Their mission in Iraq will include security details for dignitaries, transporting detainees and searching Iraqi women at checkpoints.

Melissa, who is Sarah’s only sibling, and their mother, Marilyn, both say that the United States has a top-notch soldier in Sarah.

“She is pure soldier. She volunteered for the mission, stepped up,” said Melissa, who is 30.

“She was hand-picked,” Marilyn said. “They’ve got a good soldier. She’s a very strong-willed girl. She knows what she has to do, and she’ll just do it.”

But, while the United States is sending a soldier to Iraq, Marilyn, 59, and Melissa are sending a daughter and sister.

There is a full gamut of emotions that comes with that, emotions that all loved ones of troops in Iraq have to cope with, every minute of every day.

For one, there is the worry.

“Sometimes, when I’m alone, out of the blue, she’ll come to mind and I’ll start crying,” Marilyn said. “I just want her to come home, sound of body, sound of mind. It is my only hope right now. Take it day by day.”

“When she was packing up for Mississippi, it’s when it pretty much hit me, and I got really emotional,” Melissa said. “In that snap of time, I was a blubbering idiot. It was, ‘I may never, ever see her again.’”

Melissa and Marilyn did not know back in May when Sarah’s unit first left for Mississippi that Sarah would be able to come home one more time before being deployed to Iraq.

But Sarah did get six days’ leave, which ended last week.

There was a big party with family and friends, with plenty of stories about a mischievous, fun-loving kid who is now a young woman going to war.

“Face like an angel, mind like a devil,” Melissa said smiling.

There was time while home on leave for Sarah to catch up with some of the people she’s grown close to in Marshfield. She kept busy working different jobs after high school, including at the Rexhame General Store, as a cashier; at Leo’s Bakery in Marshfield, helping make pastries and serving customers on Sunday mornings, when the bakery served breakfast; and at a Lowe’s home building supply store, as a garden specialist. Sarah joined the National Guard in 2004, a year after graduation, and worked with Guard recruiters.

But while there was a lot of running around to renew acquaintances while she was home on leave, there was also some quiet time for Sarah, Marilyn and Melissa, for the three of them to simply talk about old times and new days.

Sarah is not nervous about the challenges facing her in Iraq.

“I feel good about it,” she said. “The training we received was really good. And the people I’m going over there with, you form a really strong bond with them, really good friendships.

“You get a lot of trust. I trust them completely.”

She added that, “my thoughts are of just being safe, really wanting everyone to be OK, to come home to their families – and making sure I can do anything I can to make sure everyone comes home safe.”

Sarah acknowledges that there is some nervousness.

“It’s the unexpectedness. You never know how you’re going to react until it happens. You can train and train and train, and some people just freeze,” she said.

She knows that, at home, Melissa, Marilyn and other loved ones will be worrying about her.

“That is extremely important because it gives you more of a drive, to want to do whatever you have to do, to make sure I come home,” she said.

“Going over there in the first place is just trying to secure their safety back here at home. So, it’s just that little drive to make sure you are more motivated to do what you have to do.

In the meantime, Marilyn and Melissa O’Hearn will support her from home, send things to make her smile, and, all the while, think special thoughts about a soldier, a daughter, a sister at war.

“I’d never taken her out on a beach ride. It’s something we’d always said we’re going to do,” Melissa said.

Don Conkey of The Patriot Ledger (Qunicy, Mass.) may be reached at dconkey@ledger.com.